Group 1:
The Elysian Park Museum of Art
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
2009
The Elysian Park Museum of Art proposes reconsidering the 600-acre Elysian Park, adjacent to downtown Los Angeles, as a museum space. Founded in 2009, the museum—an ever-evolving association of artists and curators—integrates site-specific installations and performances that consider the park’s social and ecological nature. The museum helps realize rotating projects in an open, flexible, and transparent manner that emphasizes the roles of the museum and the park as public institutions. It often presents itself as an experiment in peer-to-peer curating. The museum’s dozens of projects have ranged from interactive workshops to public dinners and from installations to walking tours. In 2010, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions transformed their galleries into a visitor center for the museum, complete with artifacts and documentation. Not still currently operating.

Group 2:
Crimson Architectural Historians, WiMBY: Welcome into our Backyard
ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
2001-2007
The Rotterdam-based group Crimson Architectural Historians, which formed in 1994, functions in the interstices between research, critique, urban planning, and architecture. One of the group’s most successful projects was a six-year engagement with the postwar Rotterdam suburb Hoogvliet that began in 2001. Hoogvliet was the first of the city’s suburbs to suffer from vacancies due to white flight. The project was entitled WiMBY: Welcome into My Backyard!, as a pointed critique of the NiMBY (“not in my backyard”) phenomenon, which epitomizes fears of collectivity, strangers, and the unknown. WiMBY worked as a series of small-scale projects—parks, experimental buildings, artworks—encouraging encounters between the public and private spheres. The collective’s interventions have not only enriched the lives of the residents but also created a backdrop for social inclusion and mobility. Given the problems Hoogvliet once faced, WiMBY has become a model for postwar urban planning and sustainability. Not currently operating.

Group 3:
Zayd Minty, Black Arts Collective
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
1998-2003
Operating between 1998 and 2003, the Black Arts Collective (BLAC) was initiated by South African researcher/cultural planner Zayd Minty in Cape Town. Aimed at black cultural workers, BLAC addressed issues of race, power, and identity through regular workshops, seminars, articles, public art projects, and a website. The loose collective of artists working in all mediums meet regularly to discuss contemporary “black identity,” including questioning the use of the very term. The project was intentionally short-lived, as it was meant to address specific moments and concerns. Several public exhibitions took place during this period, including the exhibition Returning the Gaze at the 2000 Cape Town One City Festival. BLAC is not only an investigation into the cultural politics of black identity as it relates to art, but also a professional resource for the needs of black artists in Cape Town. Not currently operating.